StendhalRefactoringRP

We need a rebalance of the RP system so it is playable and fun for both newbiews and high levels. We have to talk about several things here:

Contents 1 Skill system 2 Leveling up 3 Resting 4 Combat 4.1 Melee Combat 4.2 Range Combat 5 Tactics slider 5.1 Slink---Normal---Run: 5.2 Aggress---Normal---Defence: 6 Magic

Skill system

The whole system will be skill based, so if you use sword, you will get better and better hits with the sword, but if you change to axes you will have to learn to use it again, as you did with swords. At least we have the next set of skills:

• sword
• axe
• club/staff
• range
• shield

ChadF also suggested another type of weapon skill system that you can review here

We want to avoid the situation of having to add items to monsters for them in order to combat, so we need to find a way of making compatible both systems ( the above one with the actual ATK/DEF one ).

We need to design the system to avoid campers:

Image: Campers training in Stendhal 0.39

There are several valid approach for this problem, and IMHO we should try from less severe to most severe first.

1. Blood solution
   You only improve your skill when you damage/are damaged the creature
2. Don't get XP points nor skill points from weak creatures
3. Kick idle players
   No action in X minutes means that you are logged out

We want to disallow first camping to increase skills, you gain skills by playing not by camping. Later we will fix camping by not respawing monsters if player is waiting for the monster. The whole point is to have player create value: fun.

Leveling up

To level up you need to gain XP by killing monsters and/or solving quests.
On level up you gain HP.

Resting

(Idea suggested by Nirvana) It would be nice a player's sit command to heal. The player sits down, and she heals like 1 point every 10 seconds or something.

Combat

Melee Combat

Combat right now works as follows:

1. We compute the risk to hit the target, using their ATK and DEF attributes-
2. If risk>0 then we compute if the target blocks the attack, or how much damage the target received.

The formula looks like:

  risk_to_hit = 20 * source[ATK] - roll[1D20] * target[DEF]

  if risk_to_hit > 0:
    max_defence = √(target[DEF] * (10 + target[ARMOR])) * (10 + 0.03 * (target[LEVEL] + 5));
    max_attack = source[ATK] * (1 + source[WEAPON])* (1 + 0.03 * (source[LEVEL + 5)) * speed_effect;
      where: speed_effect = 1.0 - 0.5 * speed_part * level_part^2;
        where: speed_part = 8 / (source[ATTACK_RATE] + 3.0);
               level_part = 1.0 - (target[LEVEL] + 5) / (1.2 * (source[LEVEL] + 5));

    damage = (8 * max_attack * random[0..1] - max_defence * random[0..1]) / max_defence; 

There's also small karma effect for both the hitting chance and damage.

See that it is very important the ATK and DEF value, but that you can also get big improvements using weapons, armors, shields, etc... The benefits you get from your items and skills are directly proportional to your level. The speed_part is responsible for making slow weapons more effective against strong enemies, and fast weapons better against weak enemies.

Creatures are balanced without items, and have constant item DEF of 0 and item ATK 5.

Range Combat

Damage from ranged attacks is based on the above formula, but:

• We have a maximum range
• Weapon is most effective on middle range
• Item ATK is the sum of the bow and arrow ATK values

ranged_damage = distance_modifier * normal_damage
  where: 
    if range = 0
      distance_modifier = 0.8
    else
      distance_modifier = 4 * (distance / out_of_range - distance^2 / out_of_range^2)
        where:
          out_of_range = max_range + 1,

Thus ranged_damage reaches the normal maximum damage at middle range, and drops to 0 at maximum range + 1. The point blank case is treated specially to avoid archers being completely helpless at melee.

Tactics slider

As a more or less easy to implement feature I (Zuse) suggest tactics sliders. A single (or more) slider(s) which can be adjusted by the player during the game. For example:

Slink---Normal---Run:

This slider will allow the players to adjust the speed of movement. With the following consequences;

• Slink: Players are aware of dangerous situations, they will therefore expect to be attacked suddenly (adrenalin-kick ;) ) and they slink to make no noise.

-> +10 %DEF -50% Movement speed, Creatures will start to attack/note players only if there is a very close distance (e.g. 2 tiles) between them.

• Normal: Just normal ;)

• Run: Players like to get fast from A to B (they might like to flee away). The do not take care of noise and surrounding. A attack will surprise them.

-> -10% DEF +50% Movement speed, Creatures will hear the "noisy" player and trying to attack/note the player from much farer (20-30 tiles) distances then normal.

Aggress---Normal---Defence:

This slider will allow players to adjust whether they like to attack creatures or defences themselves.

• Aggress: The player tries to slaughter the creature as fast as possible, he/she is using fancy hero-tricks, however this open weak points in the defence. Doesn't matter for real a hero which starts to become bloodthirstiness. The little scratches and wounds will be acceptable for a real hero as along as he/she is the winner of this massacre.

-> +15% ATK -15% DEF

• Normal: Again just normal ;)

• Defence: The player is under heavy attack and run out of potion. Help is coming soon from his party. Therefore, it becomes a question of time. "Ditch a hole and stick your head inside" is now the slogan :).

-> -15% ATK +15% DEF

These sliders will make it possible to run different strategies for parties and for longer campaigns. In addition the level of a player is not directly related to the DEF and ATK settings, which make it more interesting because other players do not know about the actual settings. This can help weak players to protect them better and strong players get faster rid of (boring) weak creatures.

Magic

Magic will be mana based, with each spell costing mana. Also you can have written spells that don't cost mana, but that vanish after they have been used.

We will mainly have 6 elements in Stendhal, maybe 8 later, and those are Fire, Water/Ice, Earth, Wind, Holy and Dark. The 2 that might be added later is Physical and Mental magic, that focuses on protecting against and strenghtening charm and poison attacks. For now poison will just be treated as a normal attack, and not be affected by any magic resistances.

For the Element there will be some properties:

• Fire strong vs Water
• Water strong vs Earth
• Earth strong vs Wind
• Wind strong vs Fire

• Dark strong vs Holy
• Holy strong vs Dark

The Holy and Dark elements will also be used in healings, depending on if the target is a good or an evil creature the dark and holy elements will heal or damage the target.

Here is some speculative formulas for how magic might be working

risk_to_hit = 2 * source[INT] - target[INT] + target[DEF]/2 + roll[1D20] -10

  if risk_to_hit > 0:
    attacker part = 0,8 * ((roll[1D100]/100) * source[MATK]^2) * (ELEMENT * 0,2) + 4 * source[MATK] * (ELEMENT*0,2)
    maxdamage = source[MATK]^2 + 4 * (ELEMENT)
    defender_part = 0.6 * (roll[1D100] / 100) * target[DEF]^2 + 2 * target[DEF] * shield + target[DEF] *
                   armor + 0,5 * target[DEF]* helmet + 0,5* target[DEF] * legs + 0,5 * target[DEF] * boots

damage = ( ( ((attacker_part - defender_part) / maxdamage) * (maxdamage / source[MATK]) ) * 
           (1 + (target[WEAK] * 0,01)) ) * (1 - target[STRONG] * 0,01)


ELEMENT = The elemental power of the skill that is used (Equivelant to the ATK the equipped weapon has, but for magic).
WEAK = The element that is weak to the skill that is used. (beeing strong in one element makes you weak to another)
STRONG = Is the target strong against the element casted upon him?

These Formulas is based on that all creatures have an elemental resistance to all the elements in the game:

• An elemental resistance below 0 means that you gain extra damage from that element -100 means you recive the double damage.
• An elemental resistance of 0 means that there is no change in damage from that element, or the element that is strong against it.
  
• An elemental resistance of 100 means that the target is immune to that form of damage, but also weak against the element strong against it.
  
• An elemental resistance of 100+ means that you absorbs some of that element (ie you get healed) having 200 means that instead of getting damaged you get healed the entire damage cast upon you, but you are also very weak against the oposing element.

Check over at the class section for spells that might be added Class Basics

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